Ohio selects a Presidential Candidate for the White House

Just to be clear we are "talking turkey" candidate for the White House Presidential Turkey pardon. The presentation of the National Thanksgiving turkey takes us back to the Ulysses S. Grant era in the late 1800's. Turkey has been gracing the table since before America was America.  In 1989, President George H.W. Bush began the official presidential pardon of the turkey and ever since, this bipartisan tradition has continued. The honor of presenting the National Thanksgiving Turkey goes to the chairman of the National Turkey Federation. In Ohio, we know a thing or two about turkeys, as we raise 219 million pounds of turkey each year, that is 9th in the Nation in turkey production. This year’s chairman is Gary Cooper, an owner of Cooper Farms, a family-owned farm in western Ohio. The Cooper family has been raising an extra special flock of turkeys since the beginning of July. Two of their turkeys will make the trek to our Nation’s Capital.  For more details on how the turkeys were raised read this article in Ohio's Country Journal.

Much like the Presidential Turkey is a tradition to the White House it also begins a tradition for the Cooper family. This will be their second run at raising the turkey for our President and his family. Gary's brother was also Chairman of the National Turkey Federation back when President Clinton was in office. 



Meet Tom the Turkey.
A tom is a male turkey and a
 hen is a female turkey.

The turkey is a time honored tradition and is something we eat often in our house. There are so many options now in the grocery store. Turkey burgers, brats, sausage, tenders and the traditional whole bird. We have been raising a few turkeys over the summer too for the first time. It has been a fun experience to watch them from a tiny poult (baby turkey) grow into a 30 pound tasty turkeys. I am surprised by how many people have never cooked a whole turkey. If you fall into this category or just want to cook the perfect turkey, here are a few simple tips when it comes to preparing the perfect bird Thanksgiving Day.

Plan ahead: Buy a turkey that is the correct size based on your dinner guests. If you serve a large crowd prepare two birds or a whole bird and a turkey breast. I have cooked a few big birds in my time and fitting a 41lb turkey in your oven can be a challenge (yes I have roasted a turkey that large, I have pushed the limits of my oven). I love leftover turkey so I always prepare a little extra. Visit the Butterball page for all your turkey calculations and conversions.

Don't forget thaw time: Unless you are purchasing a farm fresh turkey you need to allow for ample time to unthaw your masterpiece.

Get a good meat thermometer: This is a must you want a moist perfect turkey and a thermometer will make sure this happens. Here are the recommended cooking times based per pound. 

Budget in extra time: There is nothing worse than rushing and not enjoying time with family and friends. Add in at least an extra hour before you want to make the presentation of the bird. This will allow the bird to rest to keep in those delicious juices, make your gravy and allow the bird to cool so you can carve it.

Have the correct tools: Use a sharp knife, it makes carving the main event an art to watch. Use a turkey baster to baste your turkey and keep it browning and moist. Use a disposable roasting pan for easy cleanup and a turkey cooking bag of you want to cut your cooking time down and not baste your bird.  Keep Wondra Flour on hand for lump free tasty gravy.

Keep it simple: Turkey is naturally full of flavor. Keep your recipe simple and allow the turkey to speak for itself.

He is one of my favorite ways to prepare our Thanksgiving Turkey.  Be sure you are using a turkey that has not already been brined some maybe pre-brined when store bought.

 Turkey Brine

Ingredients     

1 gallon vegetable broth                                                     
1 cup sea salt                                                    
1 tablespoon crushed dried rosemary                                                    
1 tablespoon dried sage                                                    
1 tablespoon dried thyme                                                    
1 tablespoon dried savory                                                    
1 gallon ice water

 Directions

1. In a large stock pot, combine the vegetable broth, sea salt, rosemary, sage, thyme, and savory. Bring to a boil; stirring frequently to be sure salt is dissolved. Remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature.

2. When the broth mixture is cool, pour it into a clean 5 gallon bucket. Stir in the ice water.
3. Wash and dry your turkey. Make sure you have removed the innards. Place the turkey, breast down, into the brine. Make sure that the cavity gets filled. Place the bucket in the refrigerator overnight on rest in a cooler full of ice.
4. Remove the turkey carefully draining off the excess brine and pat dry. Discard excess brine.
5. Cook the turkey as desired reserving the drippings for gravy. Keep in mind that brined turkeys cook 20 to 30 minutes faster so watch the temperature gauge. Stuff the inside of the turkey with wedges of onion, celery, carrots and garlic and a lemon. It adds a fantastic flavor. Brush the turkey with melted butter and bake at 325*

I would like to introduce you to my favorite turkey farmer, Katie Olthoff from Iowa. Katie writes at On the Banks of Squaw Creek has always dreamed about authoring a children’s book. Recently she combined her love of turkeys and her dream of being an author. In honor of Thanksgiving Katie has agreed to autograph and do a giveaway for her first book. "My Family's Farm has been a dream of mine for over two years, since I realized that there are very few children's books showing today's livestock farms.  Farms have changed over the past 50 years, but their portrayal has not.  This book is an effort to change that."

 
 For a chance to win her book all you have to do is leave a question or comment on my Local Farm Mom Facebook page before Friday November 21, 2014 at 8pm. I will randomly select the winner and send out the book.  Be sure to subscribe my page as well!

 

My Family's Farm: Adam's Turkey Farm from Katie Olthoff

Hunger in America

 

I have so much to be thankful for as do all of you! No matter where in life you are, there is always something or someone to be thankful. I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to raise my children knowing where their food comes from, the farm. When my children say mom "I am hungry" it is the perfect time to share with them that fortunately they do not really know what being hungry feels like and I hope they never do. As a mom it truly breaks my heart to know that there are little children here in America that go to bed hungry each night.

 

46 million adults and children are truly going hungry in America. That is 1 in 6 people struggling  with some type of hunger. We are fast approaching the holidays and I would love it if you would help me and my farm community across America partner with +Bayer CropScience US and +Feeding America fight hunger on a big scale.

To take part all you have to do is visit www.thankful4ag.com and create a digital meal with your 4 favorite Thanksgiving meal foods and share it on Social Media.  Each time this is done +Bayer CropScience US  will donate $1 to +Feeding America. $1 provides 10 meals to people who are struggling with hunger.  When you make the fastest Thanksgiving meal ever, it will even share some fun farm facts with you about your meal.  If only fixing the perfect Thanksgiving meal was this easy!

 

 

All it costs is a minute of your time to help those who need a little extra assistance. NOW through December 19th we hope to have 200,000 meals donated to +Feeding America.

As if providing those in need with a warm meal is not enough, when you share your virtual meal on social media and use the #T4AgGrant to your post (must be a teacher or student) +Bayer CropScience US will enter your post for a chance to win a $5,000 grant for your school. 

 

Project #Watchthemgrow Week 24





Week 3

May 9th the soybean seeds were planted in the ground. 6 months ago they were not event a little sprout and now they are ready to be harvested. It should be in the next few days that the fields dry out so the combine can get into the field. The beans are ready but with the wet chilly weather we have had here in Ohio, the field conditions have been a little set back.




Week 9 Plants are getting a little foliar feed aka (vitamins for the plants)



Week 14





The beans are ready for harvest. Week 24 

High Fructose CORN Sryup Facts

 

A bushel is measured by pounds, that is 56 pounds of shelled corn. There are approximately 72, 800 kernels of corn in a bushel.

That is around 40-60 ears depending on ear size.

The U.S. is the largest producer of corn.

123.4 bu/acre is the average bushels harvest in 2012.

 

 Things you may not realize that are made with corn

paints

candles

fireworks

drywall

plastics

adhesives

antibiotics

 textiles

soaps

shoe polish

sandpaper

dyes

rubber tires

carpeting

fiberglass

High Fructose Corn Syrup us also made from corn. There is lots of mis information out there about HFCS. Here are some common myths.

 

Myth: Sugar is healthier than high fructose corn syrup.

Reality: Afraid not. High fructose corn syrup is basically the same as sugar—both in terms of composition and in the number of calories they contain. Since high fructose corn syrup and sugar are so similar, the human body absorbs them the same way.

Myth: High fructose corn syrup is to blame for obesity and diabetes.

Reality: Nope. There is no scientific evidence that high fructose corn syrup is to blame for obesity and diabetes. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows that consumption of high fructose corn syrup has actually been declining while obesity and diabetes rates continued to rise (see chart). Around the world, obesity levels are also rising even though HFCS consumption is limited outside of the U.S. Many other factors contribute to rising obesity levels including changes in lifestyle, diet and exercise and are unrelated to HFCS.

 

 

 

Project #Watchthemgrow week 15

This week we have one of my favorite farmers, Billy Pontius from Lazy "P" Farms in the field. Billy was kind enough to let me pester him and do this video.  A huge shout out goes  to him for always participating in my strange requests and educating me about what they are doing. I ask a lot of questions but by now I think he would expect nothing less.

Billy walks us through what he is looking for when he does his checks in the field. It is very important to keep an eye on what is happening not only for this year's crop but years down the road.

Project #watchthemgrow Week 10

Beans are really taking off! We have had some wonderful fall like weather in mid July. The skies are some of the most amazing this time of year in Ohio. Beans are growing and filling in pretty nicely. Beans seem to be growing slower this year mainly due to rain and weather.

This little bug likes to munch on the soybean plants. The Japanese beetle can be a problem
as they defoliate the plant and interrupt the photosynthesis process..
Usually they eat and move on which is what we hope happens here. The
bites are not bad at this point.  

Beans are waist high on the kids. It is harder to get them out in the field without damaging the plant.
As you can see Parker is just thrilled to get his photo taken. My 4 year old is growing tired of the camera
Meanwhile Campbell loves it!

Project #watchthemgrow week 9

Today the soybeans were getting a little foliar feed and spray. Macro nutrients were distributed using this sprayer as well as a some herbicide to kill weeds. This week for the first time you can see the blooms that have been popping up all over the field. Lots of blooms means lots of pods for soybeans to grow.  It is really important to apply the herbicide and foliar feed at the correct time.  In a perfect situation the herbicide would have been applied a little earlier but rain and wet fields delayed that a bit. If you look close you can see the sprayer has very thin wheels that fit between the soybeans at this point. This minimizes the beans that get run over during this process.

There is a little canopy in between the rows.

These bloom will turn into the pod which the soybeans will grow in.

Project #Watchthemgrow Week 4

We got some much needed rain this week, about an inch over a few short hours.  Beans really grew and the field is starting to look green instead of just dirt with a few little sprouts.

I have a farm mom friend LaVell Winsor who I met through volunteering with CommonGround. We decided to do a multi state #watchthemgrow. Here is a link to her blog Growing for Tomorrow. You can watch Corn grow in Kansas and Soybeans grow in Ohio.
http://growingfortomorrow.wordpress.com/

It is amazing how a little but of rain and lots of sunshine and warm weather makes these little beans pop right up.

Project #watchthemgrow Week 3

These are the soybeans for the week. Weather has been dry with just a sprinkling of rain. Little beans grew a bit but could use a tall drink of water.

Project #Watchthemgrow Week 8

This is what the beans looked like two weeks after being planted.  

This is what the soybeans  look like 8 weeks after being drilled (planted) into the dirt. 

Happy 4th of July!

I'm Farming and I'm Dangerous!

Watch out! I’m farming and I am very dangerous!  My name is Sophia Marshall and I am with the Industrial Food Image Bureau!

Ok, so my name is Kristin, and I am not really with any food image consultation company. I am actually a farmer.  Am I dangerous? Depends on who you ask…

I did just kick my workout partner in the jaw while trying to balance on a workout ball attempting to do stomach crunches and I have knocked a person or two off a hay wagon before. So a Danger I may be.

If we want to get specific, I am a small farmer who owns a cooking company that uses local foods. In fact, my business was started in part due to the amount of misinformation about food and farming that is floating around out there. I wanted a way I could reach out to people who were interested in local foods and had questions. 

As a farmer, I wanted to make sure people got straight forward, honest answers from the farmers who work hard to grow the food we all eat. I wanted to have conversations with the people eating my food that had questions about how I farm. I also wanted to explain that I think it is pretty amazing how others farm on a larger scale and do it just as well, if not better, than what I do. Roll back those barn doors and let's answer all the questions you may have! We have absolutely nothing to hide — especially not cows that eat petroleum capsules.

When I first heard about “Farmed and Dangerous” coming out, my first feeling was, “Why can’t we all just get along!” I was not going to watch this mini satire just out of principle, but I decided to watch. I am actually glad that I did, in fact I watched it twice. 

There were some great lines such as “Organic farmers will fertilize their pants!” I must say I laughed a few times at the clever puns and wit. The best may have been when Buck searched the Internet for “Exploding Cows” and he forgot to clear his search history…he had previously been searching some interesting things. The show had great music and they picked a pretty handsome group of actors to portray their parts in the food system.

I try to keep a very open mind and completely support consumer food choices and growing practices. It is pretty fantastic that we even have so many food options.

I have struggled with Chipotle before, but appreciate their support of niche farmers they source food from. I do find it difficult when I hear and see such an inaccurate portrayal of what farming actually is and I cannot help but take it personally. I think “Farmed and Dangerous” cost a lot of high priced burritos to produce and they were looking for a BIG REACTION and wanted to see outrage from those of us who do not share their same viewpoint. I can appreciate their concern for ethically raised foods. Who doesn’t want healthy safe and humanly cared for foods? I think on this we can all agree.

From my perspective from the farm, I think many of the portrayals in the film (though satirical) were actually somewhat representative of reality, with a couple of key exceptions. Chip the farmer is smart, successful and very knowledgeable and caring about the food he produces — just like pretty much every farmer I know. The PR folks (though I do know some really good and honest PR folks) are appropriately unscrupulous and conniving for the purpose of the message.

And, there is no doubt that there is big business manipulation of agriculture for monetary gain as portrayed by Mick with his exploding cattle. But, I would argue that, rather than “Big Ag” trying to peddle poison for profit, the real deception out there is “Big Chipotle” peddling lies and misinformation to give a perceived benefit to their products over the competition — goading consumers into ponying up more cash for their “healthy” burritos.

Let’s stop slinging inaccurate information and farmers and Chipotle get down to what we both do best, raise food and make burritos. Whether you choose to eat their burrito or not, let’s not have a foodfight! Instead, we should all come together at the table and have a great conversation about food and farming without all of the profit driven “Big Chipotle” smoke and mirrors about the food system. This seems a whole lot more logical and actually productive. Maybe we can even discuss it over an exploding burrito.

 

 

 

A Powerful Program in Agriculture: AgriPower

It was 2011 and I had a lot going on in my life. I worked full time, was starting up a new business, raising two kids and then you add in what I call “Farm Crossfit”  — the farm chores.  At the time, Sandy Kuhn was in charge of AgriPower Institute and we began to chat about the AgriPower program. It sounded like a very exciting learning opportunity, but I was so busy, I was not sure I could add one more thing to my plate. I decided to bite the bullet and apply.

I was selected and received a tuition scholarship from several commodity organizations that covered my participation costs. In the program, I met some of the most amazing people in Ohio agriculture. Our class was diverse in age and in their involvement in agriculture. Some worked in agribusiness, some were full time farmers and others just had an interest in agriculture and politics. When I began the program, I did not know one person in my class. By the end of the first morning session, I had an entirely new group of friends in agriculture.

I not only learned about our government, business practices and agriculture, but I learned about myself and how to better contribute to Ohio agriculture and explore other farming operations. During this class I developed the network and skills to set out on my own personal agricultural journey. I truly believe that AgriPower laid the groundwork for me to start conversations with people about food and farming. As a result, I have had unbelievable opportunities to attend USFRA events and CommonGround media events all over the country and share my story with hundreds of thousands of people through my blog, TV, radio and speaking engagements.

I had the opportunity to participate in a National TV and Radio
media tour sharing about Agriculture. I met LaVell Winsor
a farmer from Kansas. Check out her blog
 http://growingfortomorrow.wordpress.com/

I strongly encourage you to take the time out of your already busy life to not only learn how you can benefit from this program, but how others can benefit from you and your story. We all have so much to offer in our own unique way. Our class was fun and we became a close group of friends. We are spread out all over the state yet we are always there as a resource, reference and a support system for each other. I am so proud to know my classmates in AgriPower IV. Some of my classmates have gone on to serve on state and national commodity boards, major job advancements, Township Trustees and work on political campaigns. It was an honor to be selected as a participant in this program and I encourage you to take the time and accept the challenge to be an AgriPower participant!

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch

Blooms in the Hilltop Dessert

Lessons from a little Hilltop farm

When I hear the word "Hilltop" I think of a gassy pasture that has animals grazing on a hill. This is hardly what the Hilltop community actually looks like located south of West Broad Street at the corner of Highland Avenue and Floral Avenue in a struggling part of the Columbus. I recently got to visit the Hilltop to speak at the Highland Elementary and the J. Ashburn Jr. Youth Center.

Back in 2009, many community centers were being closed across Columbus due to lack of funding. These centers served as after school programs for many youth, a safe place to grow and learn and a common place for community members to go and feel safe. Columbus is a great city, but let’s face it, in every large city there is crime and poverty. In a meeting at the Hilltop Lutheran Church, a group of concerned citizens gathered to discuss what could be done to promote growth of the youth in the Hilltop community, since the community centers were no longer available for the children. Out of this meeting the dream of the Highland Youth Garden was put into action. This large garden area includes areas of irrigated crop production, raised beds where crops are planted “by color,” a high tunnel (green house), an herb garden, a butterfly garden, and a native plant area. Each provides special teaching and learning opportunities.

The majority of children in the nearby schools and in the community live in poverty. Most of the youth receive free or reduced lunches. For many, English is a second language. This area is also referred to as a food desert due to the lack of grocery stores in the community. Fresh vegetables and fruit simply are not available unless the children receive them in their school lunches or their parents or guardians have access to transportation to travel outside the neighborhood to shop in grocery stores.

In 2013, the youth planted vegetables, herbs, flowers, and six fruit trees. The crops included corn, mustard greens, beets, onions, cucumbers, potatoes, turnips, eggplant, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes, a wide variety of tomatoes and peppers, and several other vegetables. Approximately 25 percent of the garden is dedicated to raising food for the local food pantry and for residents that are not able to do the physical work in the garden. The children and volunteers have delivered the produce to the pantry to share what they have grown with people in their community. Two canning classes have been offered each year to help families learn how to preserve food from the garden. With the help of Strader’s Nursery, the Highland Youth Garden also assisted the broader community by sharing over 3,000 flats of vegetables, fruit plants, herbs and flowers with other community gardens, with neighbors for their own gardens, and with youth who are participating in the garden. The garden is now recognized as one of Franklin County’s 12 Hub Gardens, each of which is a resource that is being leveraged to teach and start other gardens in the city.

I was invited to visit with many of the school students who have teachers and a principle who value a hands-on approach to gardening and food. I was more than excited to see how the teachers and staff really value this garden and allow class time for their students to participate. I have always said almost every life lesson can be learned on a farm. For these children, this is about as close to a farm as they will ever get. This outdoor garden and learning center not only teaches them about science and food but about respect, responsibility and rewards.

The children that I met had so many questions for me about food and farming. They had no idea what agriculture was and seemed very excited to meet a farmer. Kids say the darndest things! Some of my favorites were:

“I didn't know that there were girl farmers.”

“You are too pretty to be a farmer.”

“Can you drive a tractor?” 

“Where are your bib overalls?”

My take home message in a nutshell was that there are children living with very little close to our farms that have no idea where their food comes from or what agriculture is about. There are volunteers who are willing to donate countless hours for children and create gardens to help educate the youth about food and making healthy food choices. They need help from people in agriculture to share what we do on the farm and how they too are a part of the food production cycle. It was such an honor to be invited to their garden and listen and watch the children. Their eyes are so full of hope and excitement. They seemed eager to learn and content, yet they have so little. Visiting the garden for just a few hours really got me excited and charged up to go out and do great things. I think that every adult (rural or urban) can learn from these children, and their little farm on the Hilltop.

  

Snake in the grass

There are not many things that I am scared of, but a few weeks back while baling hay I got attacked by a dog and that was a fear I had never felt before. It was a terrifying completely-out-of-my-control situation that I never want to feel again. The only other thing that I could imagine making me feel that way is a snake. They give me the heeby-geebies on a grand scale. 

Growing up as a child I had a reoccurring dream about a black snake slithering up the laundry shoot from the basement into the bathroom and then into my bedroom. I just hate snakes.  Where I grew up we had a lot of black snakes. We would find their skins in our hay mow and around the barnyard. I never wanted to go up in the hay mow because I was afraid of the snakes. One night my dad told me to throw some hay down for the ewes. I was being a wimp and was whining about going up there because of snakes. My dad said, “I promise there are no snakes up there.” I climbed up the ladder and began tossing down the hay. It was hot and I was wearing shorts. I felt something cold on my ankle. I looked down and, wouldn’t you know it, there was a huge black snake on my leg. I screamed so loud and jumped so far I am lucky I did not jump right out of the mow.

Earlier this week, we were again making hay and while I was moving wagons, the kids found the front half of a snake out in the field. I try not to let my fears project onto the kids, but with snakes it is just hard for me to do. Campbell was touching it and I was grossed out. I was thinking with relief that I was glad that snake got chopped in half.

I continued to haul wagons and began to unload a wagon down the road from the hayfield. I was on the wagon tossing bales down to the guys. I was kind of joking about how light a bale was as I held it in one hand longer than usual before throwing it down. Little did I know that, hanging out of the bale when I threw it down at my friend, dangled the back half of the snake. He thought I knew it was in the bale and was not happy when I tossed it directly at him. Had I known there was a snake in the bale, I would not have been on that wagon let alone holding that bale. We quickly set that bale aside and finished unloading and stacking. It was later determined by another much less snake-weary party that it was only half a snake. What are the odds that out of acres and acres of hay we would end up finding both ends of the snake? The bottom line is that I am just glad there is one less snake on the farm.

In the District

Last week I traveled to our Nation’sCapital with the American Sheep Industry on the Spring Legislative trip. I left Columbus with Roger High, the Executive Director of the Ohio Sheep Improvement and sightseer extraordinaire. We also met up with Susan Schultz, an Ohio Sheep producer who serves as a District representative on the American Sheep Industry Board.

Roger High is making sure we know
we are picking the right Metro line!

When Roger and I flew in to D.C., we bought our metro pass and set out on a day full of site seeing. We walked at least 10 miles and at the end of the day my feet were a disaster. I wore good shoes for the trek, but those shoes simply were not meant to keep up with Roger High and his tour of the District. I have run a marathon and my feet looked nothing like they did after a day hitting the pavement with Roger.

The rest of the week was spent with Sheep producers from across the country and our legislators on the Hill. Meeting with the staffers, Congressmen and Senators was very exciting. We talked about Immigration, the farm bill, scrapie program and Roger High's favorite — Wildlife services! We had over 13 appointments to talk about what we do here in Ohio and how important their support is of Ohio’s #1 industry, agriculture.

I learned so much on this trip, but it was not on the Hill that I gained so much insight on our sheep industry. After our hectic days, we met up with sheep producers from across the country and talked sheep shop. I made new friends from Maine to Oregon and many western states in between.  Ohio is the largest sheep state east of the Mississippi River but we are a small sheep state compared to the states out West. They run multiple bands of sheep across their land and BLM ground (bureau of land management). A band consists of around 1,000 sheep. Western  practices are so different from ours and what real sheep production is all about.  Without these families, our sheep industry would cease to exist. 

Myself, Roger High, Bob Gibbs and Susan Schultz in
Rep. Gibbs office.

We do not deal too much in Ohio with immigration in the sheep business, but out west their livelihood depends on immigrants (mainly from Peru) as herders or real life shepherds living in the mountains protecting and caring for the sheep. Wildlife Services is also another crucial component. In Ohio, we have coyotes which need to be controlled and we need the help of WLS to help us keep our loses minimal. Out west, WLF conducts Spring Cleans where they fly overhead in an airplane to eliminate the coyotes. Not only do the coyotes kill the ewes but they kill off the lambs and in the thousands of head (1 sheep is a head) in one year's time. These western farmers and ranchers have to factor in loss to predation in their production practices which must to be a horrible feeling but reality. In Ohio the loss of one animal is devastating, but to the guys out west that would be a blessing. 

Due to legislation like the farm bill, we are able to fund research centers to work on eliminating sheep diseases such as scrapie. While this disease is near eradication, we as producers want to see this disease eliminated for the betterment of our industry. USDA researchers and veterinarians are working diligently to put programs in place to track and eliminate this from the United States. In Ohio, we are very fortunate to have one of the best plans of action in place to stop the spread of scrapie.

Under Secretary Avalos and Elvis his right hand man were kind
enough to allow us a photo op.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was attending a lamb BBQ with many people in the sheep industry and our legislators. This was held at a boat club on the Potomac River. I had the opportunity to talk with Edward Avalos, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at USDA, and his head staff member Elvis about what involvement I have to agriculture. I also met Dr. John Clifford, Deputy Administrator for Veterinary Services, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. He has family ties to Ohio just a few miles from where I live.

 I was very impressed with their actual interest in what we as farmers and people in agriculture are encountering on a daily basis. While I do not agree with some things that go on in Washington, I was reminded how important it is for us to communicate and voice our concerns about important issues. In each appointment, it was reinforced how much an e-mail or letter means to your Congressman or Senator. Let them know your thoughts and concerns they are to represent we the people and if we stand idle they may make a decision based on lack of information.

We were able to leave a pair of woolsocks made with wool from U.S. sheep producers and made in the USA with each of our legislative visits. Of course, we got this approved by the Ethics committee and apparently wool socks are allowed.  At the Lamb BBQ they had some extra socks so Roger Susan and I were more than excited to bring back to Ohio some comfy wool socks. I was about to break out the black wool socks and wear them on the Hill with my heels due to my aching blistered feet. Next time, I will be prepared. 

Also met with the Senate Ag committee staff. If you notice a familiar Ohio
face you would be correct. Center right is Joe Schultz economist for the Ag Committee.
 

 

 

 

Know GMOs

What do you think when you hear GMO? According to a recent survey of over 1,000 moms, nearly half – 43 percent – of those surveyed believe that GMO food is nutritionally and chemically different than non-GMO food.

The World Health Organization defines genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally. It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another. Such methods are used to create GMO plants – which result in GMO food crops. This technology is called biotechnology. 

U.S. commercially grown genetically modified crops include corn, soybean, cotton, canola, sugar beets, papaya, squash, and alfalfa. In addition, small amounts of GE tomatoes and sweet peppers are grown in China. In terms of our diets, Most of the GM crops that are consumed for food are used in making processed food ingredients included in cereals, soy cooking oil (vegetable oil) and other types of processed food products that contain soy or corn ingredients. In other words, if you see corn or soy ingredients included on the food label, chances are the product was partially made with GM-crop ingredients.

Farmers and gardeners have been creating plant hybrids for as long as they’ve been growing plants. Biotechnology simply serves as a more technologically advanced or controlled method. USDA says that, while particular biotech traits may be new to certain crops, the same basic types of traits are often found naturally in plants and allow them to survive and evolve. This is really nothing new, we are just able to use the traits that can help us to have a more successful harvest.

The soybeans have a herbicide resistant gene in them that was derived from bacteria and corn has Bt genes that allow it to resist pests along with the resistance to herbicides. Bt is a naturally occurring plant pesticide found in other plants and is approved for use in organic agricultural production.

The use of these crops greatly reduces the amount of insecticide required to control the corn borer and the corn rootworm and also allows for improved weed control with reduced herbicide use. This allows farmers to produce more with less, a vital progression as we move forward with the need to feed a growing world population.

We want what is best for our families and I am the first to say you should have questions and concerns about your food.

All GMO foods are exhaustively assessed for safety by groups like the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).  In the almost 20 years that modern biotech crops have been commercially grown, there has not been a single documented case of an ecosystem disrupted or a person made ill.  GMO foods are nutritionally and chemically identical to food grown from non-biotech crops.

And, ultimately, GM crops can help to provide an increasingly important role in maximizing global land use, addressing world hunger, nutrition deficiencies and poverty issues and reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint.